


Once Upon a Darillium Night

by TheDoctorAndRiversArmyOfPeppers



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-10 08:21:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6975262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorAndRiversArmyOfPeppers/pseuds/TheDoctorAndRiversArmyOfPeppers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The handcuffs River had used on him were still on the floor. The Doctor picked them up and put them in his pocket.</p>
<p>The wiring his wife had used to give CAL access to her memory space was still there. The headset was still on the seat where it had fallen when...</p>
<p>The Doctor shook his head clear of the unpleasant memories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Spoilers

The Doctor and River had been on Darillium for a couple of weeks. They had bought a little cottage with a view of the towers and woke to them singing nearly every dark morning. They had taken a few long holidays already, returning seconds after they'd left.

That morning, they decided to go for a stroll over to the Singing Towers. It was dark but the towers were lit from beneath so they could always be seen.

The Doctor got his sketch pad and pencils out and started to draw the giant, stone monoliths. He had always loved drawing, but in this regeneration, he seemed to have a particular leaning towards it.

River sat next to him as he sketched the towers, chin propped up on her hands. What the Doctor said on their first night on Darillium kept running through her mind. Why couldn't he save her? He'd told her what happened with Clara, but that didn't mean he couldn't save her. He'd just had it temporarily knocked out of him and she can't say she's surprised. Perhaps if she got him to talk to her...

"Talk to me," River said, there's no time like the present.

"What about?" the Doctor asked, eyes never leaving his sketch pad.

"About what happens next. It's no use pretending, I can read you like a book. I die, don't I? That's why this is our last night."

"River, I really can't talk to you about that and you know it. It's spoilers," he told her, pencil stilling on the page.

"I don't care."

"You've always cared about the rules before."

"I cared because I didn't want to trap you into being something to me that you didn't want to be and because we need to preserve the time lines. This is different."

"No it isn't. I can't tell you your future, River. It's still against the rules."

"Some rules are made to be broken. If you didn't believe that, you'd never have left Gallifrey."

He felt like he was losing so he tried a change of argument.

"Why do you want to know, anyway? I mean, I've heard of morbid curiosity, but really, River?" he asked.

"I believe you once said: 'Sometimes, knowing your own future is what enables you to change it. Especially if you're bloody-minded, contradictory and completely unpredictable'. And I take after my mother, so what's the problem?"

"I've been trying to find a way to save you for billions of years," he sighed, head hung low.

"But I haven't. And I'm better at escaping than you."

"True. But if we don't think of anything..."

"We have twenty-four years."

"Two centuries, we have a TARDIS."

"Make it four."

"Done."

"Four centuries to find a way around it. I think I can manage that."

"If we don't, you'll still know what's coming."

"Is it already a fixed point in time or can I prevent it by doing something differently?"

The Doctor shut his eyes and remembered that day. How she died, and why. Pain crashed over him in waves as he recalled her final words. He couldn't stomach the pain any longer so he shook his head clear of the memories and realised River was still waiting for an answer.

"Unfortunately it's fixed," he replied. "Even if it wasn't, it wouldn't make much difference."

He let a tear roll down his face but wiped it away before it could fall onto his sketch pad and ruin his drawing.

"That's fine, then," she tried to sound confident and positive for him, but she wasn't sure she succeeded.

"I'm still not sure about this."

"Neither am I. Don't tell me I'm not worth the risk, sweetie."

She had to save herself, she decided. If only to prove him wrong and to put a smile back on his face. Why did he always smile so proudly when he was proven wrong by her? He always snapped at the handful of other people who'd managed it. But not her. It was a quirk of his that she found endlessly baffling.

The Doctor smiled up at her. He seemed to have made his decision.

"Yes, of course you're worth the risk. I told you not one living thing is worth you, and I meant it. I'll do anything, dear."

"So, how do I die?"

"Later."

"But, sweetie!"

"We have four hundred years, River. Today, I'm doing my drawing and enjoying my wife's company. I'd rather not relive one of my saddest memories now, dear."

"Tomorrow, then," she agreed.

"Yes, tomorrow," the Doctor tried to not pay attention to the hope rising inside him.

River watched him continue his drawing and chatted to him about nothing important. She began to worry, though. It had just sunk in how close she was to finding out what was going to kill her. And part of her wanted to run.

 

 

The next day, the Doctor sat down opposite River at the kitchen table and started munching his breakfast.

"So," River broke the comfortable silence. "What happens to me, then?"

"Are you sitting comfortably?" he asked, putting down his spoon.

River nodded.

"Then I'll begin."

He didn't tell her that it was the first time he'd met her or which of her crew died. He didn't tell her that he was there with Donna Noble or about her own data ghost haunting him all that time. He did, however, tell her about the Vashta Nerada and CAL. He told her what had happened to all the people who were in the Library that day and he told her about the Doctor Moon shutting down. He told her what she'd done to save him. Then he told her what he'd done to save her.

When he'd finished, he looked at her hopefully.

River examined her new sonic screwdriver and found the neural relay the Doctor had hidden beneath it's outer casing. She wasn't sure how she felt about it all. She didn't know what to think. She sipped her tea and took in a deep breath and hoped that would calm her mind down enough for her to use it.

After a few seconds, she lifted her head up and met the Doctor's gaze. He smiled at her incorrigibly but she could still see on his face how much her death had affected him. He looked older and paler. There was a sadness behind his eyes too. It had always been there, she realized. She'd noticed it before many times. She used to catch him staring at her often, with that sadness exposed where the world could see it. 

River had to admit to thinking the sadness was because of regret. Perhaps it still was, in part. Regret that he couldn't save her, as opposed to regretting her.

But she understood that sadness now. Her hearts broke for him as she thought of how long he must've lived with that memory. Looking back on it, she couldn't remember a time when the sadness wasn't there. She worried for a second. Maybe the sadness had always been there. Maybe that was his first meeting with her. Her hearts started pounding as worry began to turn into panic. She quickly calmed herself down. If it was something as important as that then the Doctor would have said, she told herself. She thought it over and over until she started to believe it.

"Well, then," she grasped his hands on the table. "Let's get started."

 

 

Seventeen years (plus three centuries off world - not that anybody says that) later, the Doctor was sitting in the study in his and River's Darillium cottage.

He had intended to right a song for his guitar, but his mind was on other things so he hadn't got many notes down on paper. He glanced halfheartedly at the almost empty page and gave up. He turned off his speaker and leant the electric guitar against the wall. He sat back in his chair and let his mind wonder over what had been troubling him.

There was something River wasn't telling him, the Doctor was sure about that. There were little differences in her behaviour, like not spending much time away from her work anymore. They used to go on adventures almost all the time, but for the past few months it'd been difficult to get her out of the TARDIS. She'd become suddenly obsessive about escaping the Library and he was worried about her.

In fact, almost the only time they seemed to spend together was when they were working on that. Although, more often than not she wanted to work alone. That was new, too. It was always something they had done together.

He missed her jokes, her flirting and her company when he was doing mundane tasks like going to the shops for milk or something else boring. And he missed her laugh when he said or did something funny. What was the point in them staying on this planet with each other if they didn't spend their time together?

And there was another thing. River had always liked sex. That was no secret to anyone. She was always making innuendos comments and flirting. But recently she had become more insatiable than normal. She came quicker and easer. That was worrying as well.

She was always hungry, she slept for longer than she used to and whenever he tried to bring it up, she immediately got cross and shouted at him to change the subject.

The Doctor recognised the signs. He knew there was a slight chance he might be wrong. She might just be ill or she could've been working too hard or anything, really. So he never asked if it was what he thought it was. She would have to tell him eventually. He could wait.

What worried him most was that she hadn't told him already.

 

 

River stared at her notes in disbelief. She just sat there and a huge smile formed on her face as what she'd just achieved sank in. She started laughing. Excitement flooded through her as she pelted out of the TARDIS, through the garden, into the house, up the stairs and into the study.

She'd disturbed the Doctor from his thoughts. He looked up at her, startled.

"What is it, River?" he asked her.

"I think I've done it!" she replied happily.

"You think you've done what?" the Doctor stared at her in hopeful confusion.

"I think I've found a way to get me out of the Library. And just in time, too."

She'd done it! He couldn't believe his ears! He felt a strange feeling as he thought that the Library wasn't going to claim his wife now. She was going to be okay. Tears formed in his eyes as the news sank in.

When the Doctor's head stopped spinning, he was finally able to process her last sentence. The fact that she had possibly saved herself from certain death seemed to sleep in his mind for a time. He wondered if she meant what he thought she meant. If she did, then at this moment in time it was more important than anything else. That decided it, he'd have to ask her if he was wrong or not.

"Just in time for what?"

River simply smiled.

 

 

River showed the Doctor her notes. She could tell from his face that he was impressed. That pleased her more than she'd like to admit.

"It will probably work," he told her, beaming. "But it's not foolproof."

"You're not a fool, darling," River replied.

"Compliments? Are you feeling alright. You do look tired."

"I'm hungry," River yawned.

"Hungry and tired. We shall have to do something about that," he grabbed her hand and led her towards the TARDIS kitchen.

He was going to ask her. He had to, this was it. The Doctor felt nervous as he practically dragged his wife down his beloved ship's corridors.

He ran different ways of wording the question through his mind. He couldn't decide which he'd use and half of him was trying to convince the other half not to ask at all. But no, he'd run all his life and it had never gotten him further away from the inevitable. He wasn't even going to try anymore.

River was staring at him. His face was set in grim determination and she wasn't sure why. She had to admit to feeling concerned.

They found the kitchen and River sat down at the table.

"Anything you'd particularly like?" he asked her with a nervous smile.

"Toast. Eight slices," she answered.

"Yes, I've been meaning to have a word with you about that," he started as he put the bread in the toaster.

"Oh, yes?" River raised a quizzical eyebrow.

He didn't look at her. He just concentrated on making his wife's toast and hoped she wouldn't get cross with him again.

"You're always hungry," the Doctor began. "You're worn out most of the time. You've started shouting at me for little things. You never used to do that, no matter how annoyed with me you were. But there's something else, isn't there? You said that working this out had come just in time. Is there something you ought to be telling me, River?"

He finally turned to look at her and was relived to find her smiling.

"I'm pregnant."

The Doctor gave a short nod.

"I take it that means you're pleased," she continued.

He had been right, then. He'd had time to think about it, when River's pregnancy had been just a theory. He hadn't dared hope it were true, but he had thought about what he'd do and how he'd feel. Strange, happy, nervous, delighted, worried, terrified and daunted. He'd been right about that too, it seemed.

"Yes, yes. I am," the Doctor finally answered. "How far along are you?"

"Nearly three months. It happened just after the Grate Salt and Vinegar Riot of Calderon Beta. Do you remember, sweetie?"

He smiled brightly at the memory. They'd had a lovely time that evening. It was one of the most bizarre dates they'd ever had.

"Of course I do! You couldn't get the smell of vinegar out of your hair for almost a week. Why didn't you tell me sooner?" he asked.

"About the vinegar smell? You noticed that all by yourself, my love. Much to your amusement, I seem to remember."

"No, about the baby. Why didn't you tell me when you found out?"

"I was on the verge of getting it right," she told him. "I was so close to finding a way out of the Library. I thought it would be best if we knew how to save me before I told you about her. Because otherwise it would've been all about the baby, wouldn't it? I wouldn't have been able to give escaping as much attention as I have been. I just thought it was best."

"I understand. So, we're having a girl!"

"Yes, we are!" River beamed excitedly. "Yes we are."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thank you for reading! :)
> 
> I tried to write a birth scene but failed miserably, so I regretfully decided to skip that chapter.
> 
> The next chapter begins as the night on Darillium ends... Spoilers!


	2. River Song has Been Saved

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy eighth anniversary, River Song! :)
> 
> All quotes belong to the BBC and Steven Moffat.

They spent the next seven years almost entirely on Darillium, now the fear of losing each other was finally gone.

The Doctor and River stood on a hill behind the Singing Towers and watched the sun come up.

Their six-year-old daughter, Clara, was playing somewhere behind them with their four-year-old, Lucie. They were running about like mad things, nearly drowning out the towers with all their noise. They took after their parents possibly a little too much.

River rested her head on the Doctor's shoulder and his arm wrapped itself around her waist. A tear trickled down her face and the Doctor was quick to wipe it away.

"Why are you sad?" he asked her. "We've fixed the problem. Or rather you have."

"I know. It's just... over," she sighed.

"What is?"

"This," she gestured towards the view, their house in the distance, the kids then the Doctor. "Life here. Being linear with you. I never realised how much I'd enjoy having you about all the time. At the beginning, I honestly believed we'd be at each others throats within a fortnight."

"We could try this again," the Doctor offered.

"You'd go mad. You only stayed so long because you thought you were going to lose me, then once that wasn't going to happen anymore, you stayed for the kids."

"I stayed because I wanted to. I've enjoyed myself as well, you know. And I didn't mean come back for the whole twenty-four years. A week here and there, perhaps."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure."

River pulled his face to her's and kissed him soundly. Clara and Lucie put their fingers in their ears and looked at the floor with disgusted expressions on their faces.

When the Doctor and River finally parted, she pulled him into a hug.

"Time to go?" he asked sadly.

"Yes, my love," she held him tighter.

 

 

River led her expedition through the many book-filled corridors until they came to large, wooden double doors. River tried to open them, but they wouldn't budge. So she blasted the doors open and found herself in a big, round room. The others all followed her inside.

River faltered when she saw him. She had hoped it would be Bowtie, but it was Sandshoes. There was that worry again, at the back of her mind. What if this was his first? No, no. It couldn't be. The older Doctor would've said something.

And there was something familiar about the ginger he was with. River had seen the portraits of the companions the Doctor had painted and was sure this woman was among them. But River couldn't quite put her finger on which one she was.

She stopped worrying about when he was and walked towards him confidently.

"Hello, sweetie," she smiled, clearing her visor.

"Get out," the Tenth Doctor said coldly.

 

 

The Twelfth Doctor, Clara and Lucie were in the TARDIS playroom. The two girls had asked him to put up their train set, so he was on his knees slotting the wooden pieces together. Although, he couldn't help thinking it'd be a lot easer if they'd stop climbing on him, he's not a climbing frame after all.

 

 

The Tenth Doctor was about to do something stupid, so River punched him. It wasn't as fun as slapping him. He didn't even do a funny reaction.

She sighed before dragging him over to a pipe and cuffing him to it.

Once she was sure he couldn't escape easily without help, she started fixing together the wiring that was going to kill her. Well, kill her for a bit, anyway.

He woke up a bit sooner than she'd like, but you can't have everything.

He seemed distressed. She found it a little bit flattering, really. The Doctor had told her that he'd loved her to some extent from the moment he saw her. She could see now that he had been telling the truth. He was so upset.

"You know my name," he was crying now, bless. "You whispered my name in my ear. There's only one reason I'd ever tell anyone my name. There's only one time I could."

"Hush, now," she smiled. "Spoilers."

River put the two wires together and was shrouded in a bright light.

 

 

The Twelfth Doctor lowered Lucie into the swimming pool. It'd only taken them an hour to get bored with the train set and declare that they wanted to go swimming.

Lucie swam to the other side of the pool just as Clara sneaked up behind the Doctor and pushed him in. Both girls laughed and the Doctor rolled his eyes exasperatedly.

"Just like their mother," he muttered.

 

 

It had been months, River was sure. For her, anyway. For the outside world, only a week or two had passed. But time goes quicker in dreams.

She haunted him. Her data ghost turned up during his adventures when he was Bowtie, and at the beginning she was sure he knew she was there. But he ignored her. So no, he couldn't see her. It hurt, but it was probably better that way.

So during adventures she said things to him, things even she would only say if they were alone. Or she'd turn up naked or make fun of him and tease him. She never got the reaction from him that she used to. Often he turned his back to her.

When he was alone, she watched him. Sometimes he'd sit there on his own doing nothing but sulk and morn her and it broke her hearts. So she watched and said things that would've made him feel better. Oh, she wished he could hear her.

 

 

The Twelfth Doctor materialized his TARDIS at the core of the Library. He used a forcefield to keep the Vashta Nerada at bay and once he was sure it was working, he stepped out of his ship and looked around. Everything was just as he left it two lifetimes ago.

The handcuffs River had used on him were still on the floor. He picked them up and put them in his pocket, River would be wanting them back later.

The wiring his wife had used to give CAL access to her memory space was still there. The headset was still on the seat where it had fallen when...

The Doctor shook his head clear of the unpleasant memories that had suddenly come crashing down on him like a collapsing building. Now was not the time to relive his wife's demise, he was supposed to be saving her.

The Doctor walked over to a monitor and got to work.

 

 

River said goodbye to everyone. She didn't know if the Doctor could save her friends too. She hoped so.

She sat in her house and waited. The pretend children she'd been looking after had gone to live with Charlotte and her restored father, so she was alone. Alone and waiting.

She'd told her teem what to expect, just in case the Doctor could save them. They were hopeful. They wanted to get out and see their families again. River felt bad about getting their hopes up, but she didn't know what else she could do. She couldn't face them, knowing that she could escape but leave them behind.

So she decided to wait alone.

Suddenly, she was shrouded in a bright light and then she was dreaming.

 

 

The Doctor had his fingers crossed. He hoped this would work. It was the waiting that was getting to him. He didn't know how Amy and Rory did it.

There was a blinding light and the Doctor was forced to close his eyes. When the light faded, he saw five sleeping people on the floor. And one of them was his River.

He felt like crying but he ignored his happiness and relief. He couldn't stop until they were all safely off that planet and away from the Vashta Nerada. He was worried they'd breach the forcefield, so he didn't have time for feelings.

The Doctor bent down and checked the sleeping archeologists life signs. They were okay. He allowed himself a brief smile before he dragged them all into the TARDIS.

The forcefield flickered off as the ship vanished into the Time Vortex.

 

 

The Doctor left the others in a hospital built in an asteroid close to the Library. He sent a message to Lux so he knew that they were alright and where to find them.

So it was just him and River now.

She was still asleep in their bed. He sat with her for a few hours just watching her as he had done so many times on Darillium.

He finally allowed himself all those feelings he had been suppressing. A few tears of joy rolled down his cheek as he drank in the beauty of her.

He hadn't felt that happy since Lucie had been born. Or perhaps since even before that. He couldn't help giggling. All those centuries he'd spent worrying about losing his wife, and it was all over. Never would it plague his nightmares again, without him having the reassurance that she survived and was sleeping safely by his side. The Doctor's hearts felt lighter than they had for centuries.

He had long since started to feel tired and was beginning to find it a struggle to keep his eyes open. So he removed his shoes, jacket and trousers and got into bed with River. He wrapped his arm around her warm waist and smiled because that meant she was there and alive. He still couldn't quite believe it had worked.

He yawned, pulling her closer to him as sleep did it's best to claim him.

The Doctor soon drifted off with River in his arms.

 

 

A couple of hours later, River woke up. The first thing she saw was the Doctor still sleeping peacefully beside her. She laughed. It had all worked and she was alive and home and safe. She looked around the room. She was in her's and the Doctor's bedroom on the TARDIS. Oh, how she'd missed this.

It felt like forever since the last time she breathed in a lungful of real air or heard her hearts beating. She was lying there, basking in the feeling of being alive again when her husband woke up next to her.

"Morning, sweetie," she smiled at him.

They were the first words she'd spoken since she got out of the Data Core and her voice sounded a bit husky and under used. River noticed the Doctor's eyes well up with tears at the sound of her voice. It had worked.

It had worked!

"Morning, my love," he smiled in return, a tear hitting the pillow. "You're alive!"

"I'd noticed. Thank you."

"For what? It was your plan. And a brilliant one, I might add."

"You did everything," she shuffled closer to him and rested her head on his chest. "Nearly."

His arm tightened around her and his other hand played with her curls.

"Where's Clara and Lucie?" River asked after a while.

"Asleep. It's still the day we left Darillium for us, so they don't know that anything was wrong."

"Ahh, we've got time, then."

"For what?" the Doctor asked.

River started unbuttoning the Doctor's shirt.

"Oh, that," he rolled his eyes in mock exasperation.

The Doctor pulled River's nightie over her head and threw it over his shoulder without bothering to care where it had fallen. Underwear quickly followed, joining the other discarded clothing on the floor.

River sat astride the Doctor, whose hands ran all over her body, utterly in awe of the fact that she was there.

River bent down and kissed the Doctor for the first time since she was saved from the Library and he could barely contain his excitement. He quickly turned the kiss from slow and loving to fast and passionate, as if he needed the proof that she actually still existed. He bit on her lip and she hummed in pleasure.

River pulled back from the kiss and the Doctor rolled them over so he was on top. He left a trail of little kisses from her swollen lips to her breasts. He bit at her nipple before continuing his trail of kisses down to her cunt.

His tongue ran along her slick folds as she withered against him. She groaned when his thumb found her clit. His finger slipped inside her and she gasped. He moved quickly and soon she felt him add a second finger, and then a third.

River was panting, getting closer and closer to the edge. The Doctor removed his fingers after a minuet or two, and she hissed at the loss.

He entered her. River made one of the most delightful noises he'd ever heard at the feeling of him filling her. The Doctor began to thrust into her violently. River's nails dug into the Doctor's back as she lifted her legs up to force him to bend down against her.

The Doctor's thrusts became faster and harder. River grew tighter and tighter around him and minuets began to feel like seconds. Her nails were leaving angry, red scratches down his back as her legs tightened around his waist.

They came together, screaming.

The Doctor collapsed onto River, tangling them up in a sweaty pile. He rolled off her and pulled her into his side. Her face nuzzled into his neck and her hair fell into his face. The Doctor took a deep breath and smiled at the smell of her. His wife was home and he wasn't going to let anything take her away again. His happy tears fell into her hair and if she noticed, she didn't say anything. In return, he pretended not to notice River's tears falling onto his neck.

The Doctor pulled the sheets back up around them and held River even closer to him.

They stayed there for hours, safe and cocooned in the sheets, wrapped in each others arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I named Lucie after the eighth Doctor companion, Lucie Miller.
> 
> Thank you for reading! :)


End file.
